Lital Levy, is an American Post-Doctoral researcher of Iraqi-Jewish descent. She is completing her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley; her thesis is the participating of mashriqi Arab Jews in the modern Arabic and Hebrew renaissance movements i.e. Nahada and Haskalah. She is concurrently pursuing a Post-Doctorate degree at Harvard University.

Peace and greetings to all the viewers,
I am a doctoral student in the U.S. researching the role of Arab Jews in
the nahda (the modern Arabic literary renaissance) and I am looking for
information about the following Beiruti Jews who played a role in this
movement:

• Esther Azhari Moyal (and her husband Shim’on Moyal and son ‘Abdallah
Nadim Moyal)

• Rabbi Zaki Kuhin (Cohen), founder of Tifereth Israel/ al-Madrasa
al-Isra’iliya al-Wataniya, and his son, the writer Selim Zaki Kuhin
(Cohen)

• The writer Selim Eliahu Mann (also a publisher and the founder of the
newspaper al-’Alam al-Isra’ili

I have a very small amount of information about the Kuhins and Mann, and
there are considerable gaps in my knowledge of the Moyals. If you are a
descendant of one of these Beiruti Jews or if you know of a
descendant, please contact me! I am also interested in learning about any
other Jews from Lebanon or Syria who took part in the nahda, especially in
the late 19th century. Very little has been recorded about the history of
Jews in the modern Arabic movement. Your knowledge is very valuable.
Thank you!

Contact Information:
Lital Levy
Harvard Society of Fellows
78 Mt. Auburn St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
lital@berkeley.edu or llevy@fas.harvard.edu

Filed under: Projects by admin